Physical phenomena associated with energy deposition into adsorbed molecules will be discussed. This energy may be provided to the adsorbate either thermally, by a catalytic surface reaction or by laser radiation. When enough energy is supplied adsorbed molecules eventually desorb from the substrate. Observation of the desorption flux with internal state selection provides detailed information about the molecular dynamics in this process, because the internal excitations are associated with the dynamics on the potential energy hypersurface. The rotational cooling effect previously observed in molecular beam scattering has also been found for desorption. In several systems strong vibrational excitation has been observed. Recent developments permit in addition the velocity distributions of molecules to be determined with internal quantum state resolution. The complete energetics of desorbing molecules can thus be determined. Finally, making use of the polarized nature of the laser radiation, alignment effects in the desorption can be observed, permitting to analyze the vector properties of the rotational angular momentum.

ZACHARIAS, H. (1990). LASER SPECTROSCOPY OF DYNAMICAL SURFACE PROCESSES. International Journal of Modern Physics B, 04(01), 45–91.